Eleanor Bergstein

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Eleanor B. Bergstein (* 1938 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is an American writer , screenwriter , film producer and film director , who achieved international fame primarily for her semi-autobiographical film Dirty Dancing .

Life

Eleanor B. Bergstein was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of a liberal Jewish doctor. With her older sister Francis, she was mainly raised by her mother. During her school days she was an enthusiastic dancer and after teaching underprivileged children during the day, she took part in numerous dance competitions in the evening, which she often won. The family spent a few summers at Grossinger’s luxury resort in the Catskill Mountains , where they also took part in dance competitions called Dirty Dancings . And while her parents were playing golf , Bergstein fell in love with a dancer from the Arthur Murray dance studio .

Bergstein told this story at the beginning of 1985 to the film producer Linda Gottlieb , who at the time worked for MGM and was committed to the production of the film. But after the script was finished, MGM management changed and the project was dropped again. For a long time there was also no other studio that wanted to film the story, which was considered too “easy and gentle”. It was not until the young company Vestron Pictures was met with further concessions that the film was shot and, after grossing over 213 million US dollars, is considered Bergstein's greatest success.

While her older sister Francis married a dance teacher, Bergstein married Michael Goldman in 1966, a poet and later professor at Princeton University , with whom she has lived in New York ever since. Bergstein was already working as a writer in the 1970s and published her first book in 1973 with Advancing Paul Newman and her last book in 1989 with Ex-Lover: A Novel .

Filmography (selection)

Works

  • 1973: Advancing Paul Newman
  • 1989: Ex-Lover: A Novel

Awards

Golden Raspberry
  • 1981: Nomination for the worst script for It's My Turn - I'll call it love

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Eleanor B. Bergstein  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at radaris.com , accessed December 9, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / radaris.com  
  2. a b Ann Kolson: Fairy Tale Without An Ending on nytimes.com, August 17, 1997, accessed December 10, 2011
  3. Julia Gaß: Eleanor Bergstein is Mrs. Dirty Dancing  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on ruhrnachrichten.de on October 11, 2011, accessed on December 10, 2011@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ruhrnachrichten.de  
  4. Roya Nikkhah: Dirty Dancing: The classic story on telegraph.co.uk from February 14, 2009 (English), accessed December 10, 2011
  5. Julia Cameron: Kiss and Yell: EX-LOVER by Eleanor Bergstein on latimes.com from June 25, 1989 (English), accessed on December 10, 2011